Google desktop search had this feature long before iPhone came along. A search box on the windows desktop that searched both the local drive and the computer. Migrating this feature to mobile seems obvious.
Is there anything more to this patent? Otherwise, this is the perfect examples of how the patent system can be easily abused for software patents

You missed the point entirely. We will sell the products to OURSELVES. While at the same time enjoying the income from manufacturing them, too.

This is a stupid argument. The US Economy consists of 1.8 Trillion Dollars in exports vs 2.5 Trillion in imports. Thats 42% of the economy in exports. On top of that nearly 40% of the total income of all US Businesses (and by extension of the employees and shareholders) is based on their foreign investments and sales.
So if US closes themselves off US will lose 40% of its total economic output. If you reduce your imports by 50% you will also hurt your exports gained after years of negotiations for free trade. Not only will everything in the US be "slightly expensive" millions of people who work in the export industry will lose their jobs and pay more for locally manufactured goods. And yes, outsourcing or labor export/import is also a way trade.
In all, trade benifts the US. Reducing trade will cost big in terms of jobs and standard of living. Saying that get all manufacturing home will fix things ignores exports completely and is downright stupid. More so, when the US markets are growing at 2-4% a year while developing markets are growing at 10% an year meaning in the next few decades the potential for exports in many many times higher than the savings from imports.
Trade and economics are not a zero sum game. Even for the mostly technical crowd here at slashdot, think of the major revenue loss Microsoft, Google, IBM, Apple etc. will have if they are hit with tit-for-tat duties in taxes in foreign countries that make them less competitive.

Posted
by
timothy
on Thursday April 14, 2011 @01:23PM
from the think-well-inside-the-box dept.

mikejuk writes "A real breakthough in AI allows a simple video camera and almost any machine to track objects in its view. All you have to do is draw a box around the object you want to track and the software learns what it looks like at different angles and under different lighting conditions as it tracks it. This means no training phase — you show it the object and it tracks it. And it seems to work really well! The really good news is that the software has been released as open source so we can all try it out! This is how AI should work."

buzzzz writes: Are Hashtags on Twitter worth it? Is there an alternative? Interesting launch at Techcrunch Disrupt trying to kill Hashtags on Twitter. Also the "TiVo" of Twitter where you can play back a filtered stream of tweets around events on Twitter.

Actually, due to the huge amount of affirmative action, upper cast people often try to be identified as lower cast.
In India 50% of all university seats, government jobs, and other opportunities are reserved from people identified to be from the under-privileged castes. The lower castes are also one of the strongest political blocks with huge electoral powers.
If anything the lower caste people want it to be easier to prove they are in fact lower class so they can get all the benefits there in.
The social stigma exists, but is not dependent on or impacted by the government. Its going to remain till a few generations of Indians have lived and ancient truths on this matter have ceased to be the standard.

gaanagaa writes: "The battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD has gotten more intense or may even be in the end-game. Today, Warner Studios announced that they are dropping HD DVD and will be only pressing Blu-ray discs. This is a big deal because Warner has a huge catalog of content.
It is the fifth studio to back Blu-ray, developed by Sony Corp. Only two support the HD DVD format, developed by Toshiba Corp."

Warner Bros is abandoning HD-DVD to settle down in monogamous bliss with Sony's Blu-ray. The company today cited "consumer demand" for its decision to stop selling HD-DVD-format movie titles at the end of May. It is the only movie major to sell high-definition DVDs in both formats, but has already tired of playing the field.

As major record labels complete their retreat from digital rights management, Apple's online music store will likely face new competition. Will consumers' love of unrestricted files make a dent in the iTunes Store's popularity?